


I still got love for you

by paupaupi



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy x Quynh, Canon Divergence, Dealing With Trauma, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Wives, Immortal family, Mortal Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Reunions, andromaquynh, andy is the one in the iron coffin, angst with happy ending, inmortal wives, the eternal warrior and her immortal army/family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27793657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paupaupi/pseuds/paupaupi
Summary: The story where Andy is the one trapped in the iron coffin. And once she's finally free, she becomes mortal.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Quynh | Noriko, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Comments: 18
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, before i start this fic i want to say that this story in no way tries to blame Andy of what happened to Quynh. The only responsible for that were the priests of the church, they were the one who chose to take Quynh and put her in her prison. And also i don't blame Andy for giving up the search for Quynh, it's imposible to find her, even marines experts say so ("it's more easy to find something in the moon than the bottom of the ocean").
> 
> Now that i clarified that, this idea just don't leave my mind, so i thought, why not give it a chance?
> 
> Enjoy whoever wants to read ♥

Andy and Quynh were enchained to a wall of a dungeon, again. They have been hanged so many times that they have lost count. 

“I’ve never been burned alive before” Quynh says, bringing her lover attention to herself. “How do you think it's gonna be?” She asks. 

If anyone would tell her the truth about that it would be Andromache. She always tells her the truth, no matter how hard is it or how much it hurts. And she’s the older, she’s so old Quynh is sure she has been through every possible type of death, torture and trauma that there is. 

"Incrusifieting" Andromache answers honestly.

They both share a look full of love and laugh about it. Because they know that no matter what the priests try to do with them, they would come back. Immortality gives them at least that advantage. 

Or at least it does until it doesn’t. They both still remember Lykon sometimes and that scares them, because they don’t want to lose each other. They love each other so much that they don’t think that they could live without the other.

"It’s you and me" Quynh says. And it’s not exactly a question, but she knows what the other woman is gonna say after her statement. Because that is what they always do.

"Until the end." Andromache promises her, with so much confidence that warms her heart.

Some minutes later some priests come into the dungeon and grab Quynh. They want to take her with them and Quynh panic at that. She doesn’t want to go with them, she doesn’t want to be separated from Andromache. 

“Where are you taking her?” Andromache asks them, standing up.

Quynh admires Andromache's strength, that even in her own panic she confronts them like she could take them right there. She is not having any of that in this moment though, she just keeps shouting her lover’s name. 

“You’re both too powerful together” One of the priests says to Andromache.

The door of the dugeon gets open and Quynh sees something that makes her panic even more than before. An iron coffin is waiting there for her. They want to trap her inside of it. She can’t take that and what it could be and meant to her destiny, to her long life. So she just keeps shouting Andromache’s name.

And then, suddenly, everything stops.

“I’m the witch, she’s not. I’ve been manipulating her through hypnotization.” Andromache shouts what she invented in that moment to try to save her. “Take me, I'm the one who deserves wherever punishment you have planned” She tries to convince them. 

“Then tell us your name, demon” One of the priests demands to know.

“I am Aiacos, the demon of all the hells that exist. I’m gonna destroy your life” Andromache says in scythian, she talked in that death language to have the effect she wanted to have. 

The priests become scared and enchaines Quynh to the wall once again. They start to talk in latin between them, and it seems one of them recognized the name Andromache have sayed.

Quynh is only just recovering from her panic attack, when the priests takes Andromache this time. That makes her panic again.

“Andromache, no” Quynh shouts as they start taking her lover out of her sight.

“It’s okay, it’s my choice” Andromache says to her in old vietnamese, so only she can understand her. “Never forget that I love you” She adds, as one of the priests covers her mouth to get her to stop talking.

Andromache is taken out of the dungeon and Quynh knows where they are taking her, to the iron coffin. The pain of her lover being trapped there makes her shout with all her strength, until her throat stops working. She fights against her chains, but no matter how much she hurts her wrists and breaks the bones of her arms, she can’t free herself.

She is all alone.

She has never felt so destroyed in her entire life, not since the moment she had given up and tried to die in the desert.

But then Andromache had saved her. They got to know each other, fall in love and lived the best moments of their long lives together.

But this time Andromache is not with her and may not be with her ever again. They have taken her away to the worst kind of prison and all she wants to do is burn the world for her.


	2. Chapter 2

“I’ve seen flashes of it before, but now it’s clear. I dreamt about a woman trapped in an iron coffin. She was drowning, and she fighted and she fighted, but she just keeps drowning no matter how much she fights” Nile tells them, after she wakes them up with her nightmare.

Quynh’s heart breaks while she hears that.

Andromache is still there, in her prison at the bottom of the ocean. All she is been doing for five hundred years it’s drowning. How fair is that? 

They had tried looking for her, of course they tried. They spent like one hundred of years trying, until they realised it was and it is an impossible mission. Technology didn’t even help them. So, they had to stop. That decision almost kills her, but still… here they are.

And all she can do is listen to what the others tell Nile to explain the situation. She is not strong enough to do it. If she talks about Andromache she will break, and she can’t break now. No when there are people out there who want to trap them for their immortality, just like Andromache is trapped.

“Her name was Andromache” Nicky starts the tale. “She was the first immortal. Because she was the first one, she spent thousands of years alone. Until one day she started dreaming of Quynh.” He explains.

“It took them one hundred years to find each other. When they finally did, Andromache found Quynh in the desert. They have been alone for so long that Quynh had given up. But once she was with Andromache they became a team, a family.” Joe continues.

“They traveled the world and fighted many battles together” Nicky adds. 

“Andromache was the strongest warrior you can imagine, she even was worshipped as a god once” Joe says, laughing at that. “That woman knew more ways to kill than entire armies would ever learn” He says in a way that let know the others it’s a quote he has said many times.

“But she also had the kindest heart, she always fighted for what she believed was right and she had this vibe, this energy, this power… you would follow her to the end of the world if she asks” Nicky says with sweetness. 

“She is the one who reunited us as a team and gave us a purpose to our long lives” Joe states like is a world truth.

“So, what happened?” Nile requests to know. She likes how the others talk about this woman, but what she saw in her nightmare still doesn’t make sense.

“It was the 1500’, Andromache and Quynh were in England, saving women from witch hunt.” Joe answers.

“One day they trapped them and sentenced them to die hanging out. And because they couldn’t die, they took it as proof they were witches” Nicky explains. 

“They locked Andromache on an iron coffin and threw it to the sea” Joe says, his voice breaking at that. 

“When Quynh escaped we tried looking for her, but we never could find her” Nicky adds, sadly.

“Quyn blames herself for Andromache’s destiny” Joe expresses his opinion.

Quynh decides to enter the room at that moment, she can’t let them keep talking about this like that. No one should talk about her feelings for her. They all look at her, not really surprised about the interruption. Joe and Nicky are seeing her with so much compassion and understanding, that she has to blink her eyes to avoid crying. 

“Why do you blame yourself?” Nile asks her. 

“Because they were going to take me, but because I was scared Andromache convinced them that she was the only witch, so they would took her instead” She answers, it’s been hundred of years since that moment but she can’t erase the quilt she feels about it. 

“Was it her decision?” Nile keeps asking.

“Yes” She nods.

“It’s not your fault then” Nile assures her. “I can feel her fury, she feels crazy and so angry. She keeps fighting the cuffin, but no matter how hard she tries she just keeps drowning” She tries to explain the despair and desperation the nightmare has left in her.

“Well, spending five hundred years in a box in the bottom of the sea would make anyone mad” Joe justifies with empathy. 

“That’s why we fear to be captured, to spend an eternity in a box” Nicky explains.

Nile leaves after that. And Quynh really understands her, it’s a lot to process. Nile is scared for all the new things she found out about herself. Her immortality and now the fears about what a long life could mean. So, she follows her and tries to give her the little calm she can offer.

They would take care of her, she promises.

“Like Andromache?”

Yes, that hurts. It’s a punch right where it most hurts.

“I gave up looking for her. I made Andromache a promise, and I broke it” 

To admit that, it also hurts. It hurts because it’s true. And no matter how true it is, she knows if she would have kept her promise, Andromache would still be lost. To find her it is really impossible.

Booker’s treason hurts too. It hurts because he knew being trapped is one of their worst fears, it hurts because he is family and he shouldn’t be capable of doing something like that to them, it hurts because he knew how much they still hurt about Andromache’s destiny… And this is like giving them the same terrible destiny. 

They give him one hundred years of exile. 

“I was hoping for less, but i expected more”

One hundred years can be a lot or can be very little, depends on how you see it. Quynh wishes she could know this for Andromache… if she could at least know how much time the love of her life would be trapped, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt that much.

Quynh doesn’t like praying, but she does on rare occasions like this one. So, she prays. She prays for Booker, so he can find a will to live their long lives... and he can forgive himself, and they can forgive him... And she prays Andromache, she asks for her to finally get free or die, so she can finally be at peace.

“If you think about the years you had lived, the good you did becomes exponential”

That hurts too as the same time it helps her to have faith again. Copley’s board hurts because Andromache can’t see it, she doesn’t have the chance to find out that the purpose she passed them gives good results. And it hurts not to see her in the modern news Copley has found, because she should have been there. She has been alive for like seven hundred years, if someone was exponential it was her. 

But now she is trapped in the bottom of the ocean, when all she did in her long life was to try to help others. And that is not fair, it never will.

Everything hurts when she thinks about Andromache. Her true love alone, drowning for the rest of her life. And she wonders: how and why immortality could be so cruel to her? First for being the first one, for spending thousands of years alone… And now, for being alone again, this time in the bottom of the ocean, constantly drowning and dying.

“Andromache it’s free, she is out of the ocean” Nile tells them one day.

“What?” She asks, totally shocked.

“She is with Booker. I think she is hurting him” Nile says, a little insecure about how to tell them the news.

Well then… maybe hearing that hurts even more. What are they supposed to do now?


	3. Chapter 3

Andromache is finally free.

One moment she was fighting her coffin, like she always did since she can remember, and the next one the coffin opened and she could finally go out. She drowned three more times until she could reach the superface.

Breathing again is one of the hardest things she ever did. It’s heavy and overwhelming. The light hurts her eyes and it distracts her. The immensity of the ocean that surrounds her feels like she is still suffocating. 

She is exhausted and scared. But she swims, because there is nothing else to do out there. She swims and she drowns. But drowning is nothing new for her. She swims until her energies drain. She swims until a ship takes her out of the sea. 

It’s a type of ship that she has never seen before. It’s different from what she remembers that ships looks like. 

“Who are you?”

"Are you hurt?"

“What happened to you? 

“Were you in an accident?”

“What were you doing in the middle of the sea?”

"How did you survive?"

“Do you remember anything?”

“What language can you speak?” 

The strangers ask her a lot of questions, she doesn’t answer any of them. Even once she has figured out their language after three hours of being with them, she stays silent. She doesn’t know if she can trust them, but she is glad they took her out of the sea, let them have a shower and give her warm clothes. 

A day later they are on land. So she steals them some money and escapes. 

She learns she is in a city called Skarsvag, in Norway. 

She spends the night in a cheap hotel. The night is hard. She can’t sleep. She cuts her hair, because she can’t take the image of herself she sees in the mirror. And all she can do is think and think, and overthink. 

The newspaper that she got at the reception’s hotel shocked her. It says it's the year 2020 and it feels crazy. Can that be possible? Has she really spent almost 500 years drowning? 

She thinks about Quynh, Yusuf and Nicolo. Are they still alive? Are they looking for her? Have they looked for her? Have they given up? 

The next couple of days she travels for Norway, learning the new things of the world. She is good about learning new things, she is used to it. But, after everything she has been through it’s strange. Some parts of her are still in shock. 

A week later, when she finally can sleep, she dreams. But her dreams are different from normal dreams. She knows these dreams. There are two new immortals: a french man and a black woman. Because of the woman she can see Quynh, Yusuf and Nicolo are still alive. She feels a lot of different emotions overwhelming her: anger, disappointment, grief, happiness, pain, relief, sadness. 

After that, she tries not to think about them, because she doesn’t feel ready to see them yet. She is angry and hurt, she feels a fury she never felt before and she doesn’t want to do something she might regret later, when she feels more like herself again.

So she blocks her dreams from the others, or at least she hopes she is doing it. She tries to hang on to her mental pictures of the ocean to confuse them. She doesn’t want to be found for now. It is better for her to be alone.

She concentrates on learning the new world who has received her free self. She learns about technology, mobile phones, computers, electricity, guns and the changes in the languages. 

And when she feels she won't break, is when she decides to go looking for the french man. She starts with him because it’s the easy way. He is not hiding, and he is not moving from place to place... and for what she has dreamt of him she knows he has betrayed the others. She is not sure why she is seeking him when she is not ready to be back, but she feels the need to do it and doesn’t question it.

She finds him in some old apartment in Paris. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you Booker” She tells him, when he enters his apartment.

It was easy to let herself in his apartment, she’s always been good at picking locks. 

He is really surprised, she can tell. He has a bottle of vodka in his hand and before they can say anything else he is using it against her. The bottle breaks and they make a mess of his apartment while they fight, but she wins. Of course she wins.

She hasn’t been expecting that, that he would fight her because he is scared of her. She doesn’t want to fight. But she killed him, so now she has to wait for him to come back to life. 

“You are really here” He says, when he wakes up and still finds her with him.

“I am” She nods. “I’m not here to fight” She adds so he can relax.

“Then, what are you here for?” He requests to know.

“I don’t know” She admits. 

“Your shoulder is still bleeding” He notices. 

Booker convinces her to sit down on one of the couches and make herself comfortable. He cleans the pieces of the broken bottle, changes his clothes and then brings a first aid kit. He takes care of her cut and then makes something so they can have dinner. 

Her shoulder hurts and it is not healing no matter how many minutes passes. This is it, finally her time is here. And she doesn’t know if she can deal with it, not with everything she is already dealing with. 

She has been waiting for this moment for five hundred years. And now that she is finally free from her prission, she is getting her wish. However it doesn’t feel so much like a wish now. Destiny is an ironic bitch.

She feels suffocated once again. She needs a distraction, so she focuses her attention on the new one who is with her, Booker.

“Why did you betray them?” She asks, when they are having dessert.

“Because I wanted to die. I thought that they would help us find an end to our immortality” He answers her. 

“It wasn’t fair for you to use them, if you were that desperate you could have done it alone, without involving them!” She accuses him, angrily. “Still, that wouldn't be okay either. You should have asked for help instead of commited a trison” She says, after taking some deep breaths to calm herself.

“Is this your way of asking help?” He asks, pushing back.

“You don’t have any idea what it is to be really alone, nor what suffering really is” She states, ignoring his way to try to change the focus of the conversation. 

“Just because you had it worse, doesn’t mean I can’t feel bad about my own life and destiny” He defends himself. And she knows he is right on that, but she is still angry.

“They are your family and you betrayed them! How could you do that?! What makes you believe that could be a good idea?!” She explodes, as she walks from side to side of the room. “Betraying your family is the lowest thing you can do and I don’t know how you can come back from that” She says her honest truth. 

“They gave me one hundred years of exile” He informs her, trying to calm her. 

“Good for them, I would have given you more” She says, as she lets herself fall on the couch again.

“Then why are you here and not with them?” He asks with curiosity. 

“I don’t want to see them yet. I’m still angry and hurt about everything” She answers honestly. 

“They looked for you for so many years” He assures her.

“Not enough” She denies.

“It was an impossible mission” He justifies.

“Maybe” She considers. “Still it hurts” She admits.

It still hurts. She may not be ready to see them yet because she is angry and hurt, and doesn’t want to do anything to them that she will regret later. She needs time to recover a little first. However, she knows she loves Quynh and she would take her turn in any kind of torture if that means she is gonna be safe. She would even do it right now in a heartbeat, without even doubting it, no matter how angry or hurt she is, or crazy she feels.

“Why are you here?” He insists on wanting to know that.

“I saw your treason in my dreams, I felt your quilt.” She answers thoughtfully. “I’m so angry at you for wanting a prison for all of you, when you knew about mine. I wanted to hurt you, make you pay for it” She finally confesses, once she has figured out her intentions. 

“So why don’t you?” He asks, because that’s what he has been waiting for and is surprised she has contained herself. 

“Because you are one of us” She answers simply, like that should be reason enough.

She may still feel crazy. She may still feel like she is drowning most of the time, no matter how far she is from the ocean. Seems free air can be as suffocating as marine water. She may be angry and hurt about her desiny and her family not finding her. She may be furious with Booker for betraying them. 

But he is one of them. He is family. And she would never hurt them intentionally, no matter how crazy she is feeling for what she has been through in the bottom of the ocean. 

And he is a baby. He has so much to learn... She can empathize with wanting an out, a definite death; but not with sacrificing the others in the way. Suddenly she remembers her shoulder and feels the pain still there. And now she knows she probably won’t be there to see him learn his lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Booker's betrayal is a little different in this fic. He shot Quynh, but she healed. Nile did save them from the lab, but there was no jump from the building. They killed Merrick with a shot in the head. Doctor Kozak escaped.


	4. Chapter 4

“I don’t, I can’t do that” She tells Booker, not accepting what he is asking of her.

“Yes, you can. I need you to do it, please” He insists. 

“No, you already have your punishment, one hundred years of exile” She reminds him.

“It’s not enough, I need this” He protests.

“Why?” She asks, without understanding him.

“Because I want to die and maybe this will help me” He explains the best he can.

“Not that I approve of what you want to do, but the thing is you can do it by yourself, you don’t need me for it” She tries to reason with him.

“I need you there because I want to understand what you've been through, I need to feel it and not just dream it. And I need someone to get me out” He expresses his point of view.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you” She denies, she doesn’t need more shit in her life to feel crazier than she already does.

“Come one, you need it too. You can put all your anger and madness in me, until you feel better” He keeps trying to convince her.

“I said no!” She tells him, angrily. 

“If you don’t I will call the others, tell them you’re free and mortal” He threatens her.

“Are you being fucking serious right now?! Who do you think you are to bribe me like that?!” She asks, feeling furious. “It’s not your right to say personal things about me to others” She states very seriously.

“I know, but I’ll do it anyway, because I’m desperate” He warns her.

He picks his mobile phone and puts it on his ear to make the call. She is not sure if he is just testing her or he is really doing it, but she can’t take that chance. She takes his mobile phone from him, throws it to the floor and smashes it with her boot. 

She can’t believe that he is going to win. Yes, she could kill him and escape, but what would the point of doing that? He would get a new phone, call the others and tell them her truth, and she doesn’t want that. Maybe if she would be in a better mental state she wouldn’t agree to it, because she would realise where the priority of the situation should be. But this is not one of those times, she is not ready yet. 

“If we do this, you have to promise that you won’t tell the others about my mortality” She says, kinda in a madiation way.

“I promise” He swears.

And that is how she finds herself in a sailboat in the middle of the ocean once again. Ironic, isn’t it? 

She should be terrified of being in the open ocean again after how much time she spent drowning, but surprisingly she is not. It’s a relief she doesn’t, she hates panicking. 

Booker wants to drown. So he chains himself to the sailboat and jumps into the ocean. He would always tell her how much time to leave him drowning and when to pull him out. 

“What is the point of this?” She asks him one day, when she pulls him out of the water at sunrise time. “This is not helping, it's just bringing more pain” She expresses her opinion.

They stay in silence, just looking to the sun as it starts rising from the horizon. She always has loved sunrises and sunsets, because they are one of the few things that never changes. No matter what is going on in the world, the sun is always there. It should give her hope and peace after not seeing it for so long, but all she can feel now is sadness.

“You know, I always felt lonely and grieving. I don’t know why I had always focused on the things I losted, my old life, my family” He says thoughtfully. “But, I’m starting to realise I was never really alone. Not even now. When I'm drowning I always know you’ll be here to pull me out, and that gives me hope and peace” He shares what he has been learning of this experience. 

“Yes, well I still feel you are crazy and I’m not here by choice” She says bitterly.

“I know Andy” He agrees with her. He started calling her Andy some days ago and she let him, she kinda likes the nickname. “How much time were you alone until you found Quynh?” He asks, looking at her with a new curiosity.

“Too long” She answers. 

It was somewhere along three or four thousand years. And now she guesses she should add the five hundred years she spent in the bottom of the ocean. 

The next day, she is waiting for the sunset to pull him out, when what she has been fearing finally happens. Someone is coming to their ship, and she knows who that “someone” is. The immortal team has found them and she will have to confront them, no matter how much she doesn’t want to. 

Suddenly the four are there. Quynh, as beautiful and magnificent as always. Yusuf and Nicolo, together, she can feel their love even when they are apart from each other. The new one, a black young woman, who looks confident and brave, and seems nice. They are looking at her like she was a ghost or something, and that makes her nervous. 

“Hey Quynh” She greets her lover first, because she is the one who she is more interested in getting to react.

“Andromache” Quynh says her name softly, her voice breaking a little. “You are free” She states.

“I am” She nods. “Although not thanks to any of you” She says, in a reapproaching way. 

“Where is Booker?” Quynh asks, as the others search the ship with their sight. She is pointing a gun at her, but she doesn’t feel intimidated about it. 

“You haven't seen me for five hundred years and that is what you want to know first, are you sure?” She says, knowing where to press. 

“Yes” Quynh confirms. 

She is kinda pissed that things are going that way. Wherever, if that is what they want, she’ll go their way. Quynh comes at her ready to fight, forgetting her gun and just using her sword. Andy doesn’t have any weapon with her, so she just improvises and uses a wooden stick from the deck of the sailboat.

Fighting with Quynh is easy, it's like dancing. They know their moves, their strengths and their weaknesses. Her stick breaks in pieces as they fight, but she keeps going. 

While they fight Yusuf, Nicolo and the new one finds the chains and they pull Booker out of the ocean. Quynh stops the fight when Booker is with them, so she can get him back to life. 

“Quynh” Booker says, as he comes alive and recognizes her. “What are you doing here?” He asks, really surprised.

“We came for you” Quynh answers. “Nile dreamt about you being hurt, we couldn’t let that happen” She explains. 

“It’s not Andy’s fault, I asked her to do it, she is just doing as I wish” Booker defends her.

“And you agreed to this?” Quynh asks, turning her attention back to her. 

“So what if i did?” She challenges, although it’s not entirely the truth. 

“You know this is not right” Nicky says to her. 

“You shouldn’t have agreed with this kind of punishment, it’s cruel and you’re not” Joe adds, agreeing with Nicky.

“You are not like this, you’re better” Quynh states.

“You haven’t seen me in hundreds of years, you don’t know who I am anymore” She justifies in an accusing way.

“Maybe we should keep this conversation for later and focus on getting to shore” Nile suggests, interrupting their discussion.

So, they sail the ship to the nearest coast. Once there, they have the intention of going to a safehouse, all together. Booker agrees with them. But she can’t, she still needs time.

“I’m not going” She says, when they are all ready to leave the ship.

“What?” Quynh asks her, surprised about it.

“I still need time to heal and I can’t do it with all of you controlling me” She explains.

“We are not going to control you” Quynh argues with her.

“No?” She asks, laughing at that. “You all think I’m crazy” She reminds them.

And that is how a long debate starts. Nile talking about how she felt her in her dreams, Yusuf empathizing with her, Nicolo wanting to help, and Quynh doesn’t wanting to let her go. They all have opinions of what she needs, how she probably feels and how she should heal. But they are not listening to her. She doesn’t need this, nor doesn’t want it. She just needs time and space, until she can finally feel her own self without thinking she is gonna have a relapse and become all crazy.

The debate continues, until Booker shots everyone multiple times, so it will take them some minutes to come back to life.

“If you want to go, just go” Booker tells her.

“Why did you do that?” She asks confused, pointing out the others.

“You helped me, so now is my turn to help you” He answers. 

“And you are going to keep your promise?” She requests to know, referring to her mortality topic.

“I will” He assures her.

“Thank you” She accepts gratefully. 

So, she runs. She escapes and hides. If someone is good at disappearing from the world, that is her. And if she doesn’t want to be found, there is no way they are going to find her. After all she has thousands of years of experience more than them. 


	5. Chapter 5

Quynh was in shock. She couldn’t believe Andromache was there, right in front of her, free and alive.

She took some minutes to examine her. She looked as strong and magnificent as ever. The modern clothes looked flawless on her, even if she was wearing really simple pieces. Her arms were at show, muscular as she remembered. She had cut her hair and the new style looked gorgeous on her, that all she could think about was grab her and caress it until she felt satisfied. And her eyes, green and expressive as ever, showing so much pain it actually fisical hurts. 

The sunset sun was illuminating Andromache in a way that made her look as some kind of goddess and it was the most distracting thing ever. She has missed her so much, but instead on focusing on that she had focused on Booker. And that was a mistake, or at least that is what she thinks when she comes alive again. 

“What the hell?” She asks, as she realised that someone had shot her and shot the others.

“I’m sorry, but I had to do it” Booker apologizes.

Quynh stands up and as she checks that everyone is okay, she notices someone is missing. Andromache is not there with them anymore.

“Where is Andromache?” She demands to know. 

“I let her go” Booker answers.

“What?! Why?!” She questions, starting to feel fury in her whole body.

“Because that’s what she wanted” He simply says, like it should be enough. 

But it’s not enough. Quynh can’t take the idea of being apart from the woman she loves ever again. 

“Nile, take Booker to the safe house” She asks to the youngest immortal.

“Okay” Nile accepts. 

“We’ll talk later” She lets Booker know. “Joe, Nicky, lets separate and look for Andromache. Someone has to find her” She says to her brothers.

They separate and they look for her around all the city. When they are reunited, they find out no one could find her. Of course no one could, Andromache has always been the best about disappearing. 

The situation is really frustrating and Quynh feels like crying. This should be their opportunity to be together again, but instead Andromache had chosen to run away from them. It hurts, because she has missed her and wants to be with her, to help her recover from the pain she is in. But she has to start assimilating the idea that what she wants is not ging to be possible.

Joe, Nicky and Quynh go to the safehouse feeling defeated. They stayed in the city for a month, searching every corner, to see if they can find her. But they can’t. Andromache’s gone and they don’t know when she is coming back, or if she ever is coming back. They don’t even have Nile’s dreams anymore, because she and Andromache have met now. It is totally hopelessness. 

One night they are discussing what to do with Booker. If they should keep him on exile, or not… And of course Andromache’s topic comes to the discussion as well. 

“It wasn’t Andy’s fault” Booker intervenes in their conversation.

“Andy?” Nicky asks, trying the nickname. 

“Yes, Andy” Booker nods. 

“It’s a nice nickname” Joe says, amused at it.

“It wasn’t her fault, she just did what I asked her to do” Booker insists, ignoring the banter of the other two.

Of course Booker would defend Andromache and talk about her with affection present in his voice, even when the other was the one who drowned him. That is part of Andromache’s power, she could be punching you right into the face and you would thank her and ask her to please do it again. 

“You can’t defend her in this Book, not when she was hurting you” Nile reminds Booker.

“But she didn’t want to hurt me” Booker says with confidence.

“Really?” Quynh asks, kinda ironically. 

“She only did it because if not I was going to contact you and tell you she was free, and she was not ready for it” Booker admits, clarifying the situation. 

“Well, shit” Nile says, shocked about the revelation.

“So, what? You bribe her?” Joe questions Booker.

“Yes” Booker nods, looking a little ashamed about that. 

“Did you really want to die or suffer?” Quynh says, not knowing how to handle that truth.

“I do, or I didm I don't know...” Booker agrees. “The thing is, she made me realise I may feel alone but i was never really alone, that I shouldn't take for granted what I do have. She was there every time to pull me out of the sea, and I’ve never felt more peace in my life than in those moments” He expresses his feelings about what happened.

“You know it’s not healthy to feel peace when you are suffering, right?” Nicky asks him.

“I do” Booker nods. 

They talk and Booker finally makes them understand that what he really has wanted was to die, not betray them. He knew he was wrong on how he did it and he regretted it. They get to the conclusion that his depression it is not gonna be fixed with exilation. They agree that he is not going to be joining them in their missions, but if someone wants to see him it is free to do it. Booker also agrees to go to therapy, so they ask for Copely to find someone of confidence. 

Some months have passed, but there isn't any news of Andromache. Quynh is a little frustrated and anxious. She misses her and she just wants her back. She hates thinking of the other one hurting, alone. 

“Did she ever tell you why she wasn’t ready to see us yet?” She asks Booker one day.

“She said she needed time to heal first, to stop feeling crazy, that she didn’t want to do or say things she may regret later” Booker answers.

Andromache has always been an independent person. She was so used to being alone, that she has learned to do everything on her own and always felt like her personal problems were hers to deal and fix alone. She always carried that burden with her, feeling like she was only safe keeping things inside. And if she wanted to explode, she should do it in solitude. 

She had become better about it with Quynh’s and Lykon’s presence, and then with Nicolo and Yusuf. They teached her that she didn’t need to deal with everything on her own, that she was safe with them because they were family. But now that she recently spent five hundred years being alone again, it was kind of normal that she has returned to her old ways.

“Yes, that sounds like her” She accepts. “I just wish she would let us be there for her, help her heal” She admits, feeling sad. 

“She’ll come back when she is ready, she loves you” Booker assures her.

“How do you know?” She asks, surprised about Booker being the one bringing the love word to the topic.

“She told me” He answers.

“What else did she tell you?” She requests to know, once she realises he is not going to expand what he knows.

“That if you would ever be in the same situation, she would do it again. She would choose for you to be okay and safe every time” He finally lets her know.

To hear that it actually breaks her and she finds herself crying. Booker hugs her and she lets herself be calmed in the warm of his hug. 

So, yes, maybe she can respect Andromache’s need for healing alone. But still, she wants to find her, she wants to know she’s okay… maybe checking her from afar. That is how she finally decides to tell Copley about her and ask him to look for her. 

It doesn’t take him too long to actually find her. What gets his attention it’s that there’s unexpected saves in strange situations. They all agree that it sounds like Andromache, like them. That is what they have always done, so it makes sense that she is doing it again.

They follow the clues and go to all the places Copley tells them. But they are always late, they don’t even find proof of her being there. They hope for it, because they all know she is the best at erasing the tracks of her presence and being anonymous. But they can’t be totally sure. 

“We can’t keep doing this” Nicky tells her.

“She doesn’t want to be found, we have to give her time” Joe agrees with him.

“I know” She finally accepts. “I just miss her” She admits.

“We miss her too” Joe says in a melancholy way. 

"But we have to have faith in her, she will come back to us when se is ready" Nicky tries to calm then and himself.

Quynh knows they miss her too. They love her as a sister, just as they love her, and now they are learning to love Nile.

So, they go back to their own missions, because they can’t spend their entire time following someone who doesn’t want to be found. Like Nicky said, they would have to trust Andromache and wait for her to be ready to come back.

Their missions are going great. They have faith again thanks to Copley’s investigations and to the new energy Nile has brought to the team. 

And then, something unexpected happened… They were ambushed in one mission, they were hit with grenades and lots of bullets. They are a mess and before they can recover they are being tied and trapped. 

They take them to a lab, and they are reunited with Booker there. Seems like he had been caught up too. 

“Does someone know what the hell is going on?” She asks them. 

No, no one of them knows. Until the person in charge appears. Doctor Kozak, she is the one who has caught them. Quynh tenses at that, remembering how traumatized Joe and Nicky have been after the escape of Merrick’s lab. They should have killed this woman, like they killed Merrick. A clean shot in the head. They should have, because wherever she has planned for them, it won’t be good.

And the worst and best of it, is that there is still hope for them. 

Because Andromache is out there, free. And no one knows about her existence.


	6. Chapter 6

Andromache has taken time to heal.

The first thing she does is live alone for a year, only surrounded by horses. Those animals have always given her peace, so she puts her trust in them again. If something can help to calm her troubled heart and mind, that is gonna be them.

She knows she is kind of running and escaping from her family, but it is what she thinks she needs. If they love her, they will accept it and understand it sooner or later. They will forgive her, just like she is learning to forgive them for not finding her.

When she feels ready to leave the horses, she travels all over the world and keeps learning all the new things she has missed. She trained herself in all the new types of weapons until she masters them all. She practices again all the martial arts she knows, even those those don't exist anymore because people stopped teaching and learning them. 

She also takes care of her soul, to recover from her trauma. She goes to a guru and starts meditating a lot. It is an habit she goes back to do sometimes, when she needs a discharge from all the pain. She also tries therapy; she is not a fan of it, but she tries. 

And somehow, along the way, she starts healing. Smalls and larges places stop suffocating her. The dark stops giving her nightmares. The quiet stops preventing her from sleep. Even the ocean stops feeling like a threat, because she has survived against it. 

The only thing missing is for her to assimilate her mortality. She is not afraid of dying. After living for like seven thousand years, she is more than ready for it. What she is not ready for is to say goodbye to the people she loves. The only thing that scares her is that she doesn’t know how they are gonna react to her death, how they are going to live with the pain of losing her. 

She still hurts for Lykon. She doesn’t want the others to hurt for her like that, but is not like she can do anything to change it.

Mortality or not, she is who she is. And she is a warrior. She has been fighting for what she believes is right all her long life. And she still does, that is why sometimes she finds herself helping and saving random people of dangerous unexpected situations. 

There was one time that she saved a group of women from a sex traffick ring. She thought she was gonna die that day. But somehow, miraculously, she didn’t even get shot. It seems that not even modern people with their modern weapons can win against her millennials of combat experience.

When she finally feels ready to go back to her family, she starts visiting the safehouses she remembers, to see if she can find them or find some clue that takes her to where they are. 

In one of the safehouses she finds something she wasn’t expecting. There is a strange man in it, he is inspecting the place and their things. She feels furious about that and what it could mean, so she decides to confront him.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” She asks with authority, making her presence known. 

“What? Where did you come from?” He asks, shocked about the woman's presence.

“This is not your house” She says angrily. “So tell me what you are looking for or I’ll shoot you” She warns, pointing at him with his gun.

“I’m…” He starts, but he suddenly stops when he realizes who she is. “You’re Andromache the Scythian, the eternal warrior” He says, recognizing her. 

“Explain yourself, don’t make me ask again” She insists, ignoring his recognition. 

“I’m James Copley” He introduces himself. “I work for Quynh, Joe, Nicky, Nile and Booker. I help them find works where they can help and I erase the marks they leave behind” He explains. 

She calms down at that. She is never been a fan of having mortals knowing their secrets, but sometimes is necessary. Sometimes there’s good people who can help them. She hopes this man is one of the good ones, if not he will have to pay the consequences. 

“So, what are you doing in their house if they are not here?” She requests to know.

“Well, I’m trying to find them” He says, sounding worried.

“What do you mean?” She asks, confused. If he works for them she should know where they are.

“That they have disappeared. It’s been a month since they last contacted me and I’m worried, I think doctor Kozak’s team found them.” He explains the situation. 

“Who’s doctor Kozak?” She question him, already hating that person.

So, Copley tells her everything. He tells her about Merrick, about the first time the team was captured, about how they experimented with them, about how Nile saved them, about how they killed Merrick… But doctor Kozak, the one who has tortured Joe and Nicky, had escaped. About how he thinks the doctor has reunited a new team and captured them again.

He tells her about how much good they did too. How the purpose of fighting for what they believe is right has made a lot of good to humanity. She feels emotional about that revelation, and lets her faith be renewed again and warms her inside out.

All she hears from Copley makes sense, that is why she agrees to work with him. They investigated together, until one month later they found the team. They can’t lose more time, they can’t let them be tortured another minute. She is gonna go get them and save them.

She puts on a bulletproof vest and hopes it works. She has seen how mortal people use them to protect themselves from bullet wounds. She doesn’t care about getting hurt or dying, but she needs to get to her team alive so she can free them. So, she hopes this works. 

“Why do you need the bulletproof vest?” He questions her, with curiosity. 

“Distraction” She says without even thinking for a minute, to make it sound natural. “And to gain time, if I’m getting hurt constantly it would slow me and they could overpower me” She tries to give him a reasonable explanation. 

“Are you sure you don’t want backup?” He asks her for what feels like a million time.

“Yes, I’m sure” She answers. “We can’t risk more people finding our truth” She expresses the reason of her decision.

“I can go with you” He offers. 

“No, it’s okay, I can handle this on my own” She denies. “Besides, you’re mortal, it’s too risky for you” She reminds him.

“I know, but still, they could trap you like the others” He says, worried.

“And they could kill you” She argues with him. “Between us, I’m the one who has more chances of surviving and going out. I’ve been fighting for seven hundred years, there is no way they know how to fight better than I do” She says with confidence.

She may be taking a risk in not telling him about her own mortality, but that’s okay, it’s her decision. She has been fighting her whole long life, this is just another part of it. If she is mortal or immortal, it doesn’t change anything. She would get her family back and they would get out of this situation together, because that is her mantra: “we’ll go out of here like we always do, together”. Maybe it didn’t work for her, but she could make it work for the others. And if she dies in the process, she doesn’t care, it would be worth it.


	7. Chapter 7

They are all so tired and Quynh doesn’t know how they will overcome this. It’s been more than a month of pain after pain. The team of doctor Kozak have been experimenting with them, but still can’t find the secret of their immortality. She is glad that they can’t find what they are looking for, but she is not sure how they are going to keep bearing the pain.

Is this how Andromache has felt for five hundred years? This hopelessness and this hurt? Who could blame her or judge her after this about how she chose to handle her pain and took time alone to heal? No one, literally no one.

“How are you?” She asks Joe, when they bring him back to the cell with everyone.

“I’ve been better, but also I've been worse” Joe answers, very vaguely. 

“What was it this time?” Nicky requests to know.

“My liber” Joe answers him.

Yes, that is another thing. They take organs from them sometimes, to examine them and make experiments with them. Probably sell some of them to the black market too. It’s painful, gross and traumatic. But, here they are. Still alive. At least they all can understand now that being a subject of investigation would never be good for them.

Next day, something strange happens. Lots of guards come to the cell they are being kept in and plant themselves on it. Something must be wrong for them to come watch over them.

“Something is wrong” She tells them, in arabic, because she thinks that is the language the guards probably understand less.

“Yes” Nile agrees with her.

“We have to be ready to fight, this could be our chance” Nicky says with confidence. 

“Stop, not talking while we are here” One of the guards warns them.

Quynh wants to snap at that. She can imagine the situation in her mind: she would say something like “we don’t take orders for you” and after they receive another threat, Joe would follow her with “What are you going to do? Kill us?”. And they all would laugh at that. 

But it is better to pay attention to the situation and use all they can to their favor. 

And suddenly, what they are waiting for comes. They can hear a lot of shots, hits and bangs. There is literally a battle out there.

“Copley?” Nile asks, thinking about who would be there making such a chaos. Is it to save them?

“No, I don’t think so” Booker answers.

Quynh looks at Joe and Nicky, and what she finds in their eyes tells her they are thinking the same.

“Andromache” She and them say at the same time.

Quynh feels overwhelmed about all the emotions she is feeling for that fact. Andromache is here, she came for them. She came to save them, even when they couldn’t do the same for her. 

Before she could get lost in her feelings, the door of the cell explodes because of a grenade. And then Andromache is there, invading all the space like she always does. 

She is in all her warrior glory. A sword in one hand and a gun in the other, and her axe on her back. She fights the guards like they are nothing, like they don’t have any chance against her. And they don’t. She is the best at hand and hand combat. If someone could defeat all of them like it was an easy task that would be her, her wife. 

“Who are you?” The last guard standing asks Andromache.

“Andromache the Scythian” Andromache answers him and then nails him in his stomach with her sword. “But you can call me Andy” She adds, and winks at Booker. 

That is the nickname Booker has been calling her since they met. Quynh realises Andromache likes it and she finds herself smiling at the thought. Andy is a nice nickname and it sounds modern. It's like the opposite to Andromache, that sounds ancient and like it was the name of a warrior from a legend or a goddess. Andy sounds like a perfect fit, because it is modern but derives flawless from Andromache. 

Before Andromache can free them, more guards enter the cells. So, she focuses once again on the fight. 

Quynh watches Andromache fight with a smile on her face. She loves watching her fight, because she is extraordinary and remarkable. 

She watches the others for a second and she feels happy to see them as amazed as her. Joe and Nicky are looking at Andromache with so much love, it actually hurt. Booker is looking at Andromache with admiration and respect. And Nile, she is looking at Andromache as she was a force to be reckoned with, like she has some superiority power. 

She centers her attention on her wife once again and appreciates every move she does.

Andromache defeats all the guards. And then, there is only silence. Andromache seems lost, her eyes look haunted as she takes the space around her. And Quynh gets it because she knows her, she knows Andromache always feels every death she causes, knows she always carries the quilt about being that “lethal”. 

“Andromache” She calls her, until the other finally meets her eyes. “Is okay, you did it for us, to save us” She states, like it was a truth everyone should know.

“Quynh” Andromache says.

And then Andromache is walking to her, and when she is finally at her side she kisses her. Quynh hasn't felt this happy for so long, that she hangs on to her and shows her all her love. This is what she has been waiting for, since the moment she knew the other was free. This is what she has been missing for five hundred years. And now that she has it back, she is not planning on ever letting go ever again. 

“We need to go” Andromache remembers her, breaking the kiss.

Andromache is right, they need to go. She has always been practical in that sense, and can identify the priorities in a dangerous moment. 

Quynh gives her one more little kiss because she can, as Andromache untied her, and then they divide to free the others. She is helping Joe out of his restrictions, when she hears something that makes her heart stop for a moment,

“You are bleeding, you are hurt” Booker says to Andromache.

“It’s nothing” Andromache says, without giving it importance.

“Andy?” She asks, calling her by the new nickname for the first time.

“Yes?” Andromache asks back, as she unties Nile and ignores Booker.

Quynh goes to her and grabs her waist so she can see her side. There, between her front and her back, where the bulletproof vest doesn’t cover her, there is blood. Booker is right, she is still bleeding. Is a bullet wound.

“You are not healing” She says, looking at her. 

And now it makes sense why the other was wearing the bulletproof vest. It wasn't only to not draw attention and protect their immortality secret, it was to take care of her now mortal self.

“Since when?” She asks, searching her eyes to see if she says the truth.

“Since I came out of the ocean” Andromache answers her honestly. 

Suddenly Nile is there and uses scotch tape to stop Andromache’s blood. She is glad about the quick thinking of the young woman, and gives her a thankful smile. Then, she is back focusing on her wife.

“Andy…” She starts.

“This is not the time for it. We don’t get to say when it ends, we never had, but we can control how to live” Andromache interrupts her, speaking with the unmatched confidence that always characterized her. “Now let’s go, we stop doctor Kozak here and now, or she’ll never stop coming for us” She says, directing her words to everyone. 

“Andy” Nicky says, calling softly to Andromache. “Are you sure?” He asks.

And Quynh thinks she could hug him for asking that, because that is what she wanted to know. She doesn’t want her wife to keep suffering.

“This changes nothing. We’ll walk out of here like always, together” Andromache says with confidence. “Now let’s get this motherfucker” She adds as she prepares herself to lead. 

And that is the thing about Andromache, they haven’t been lying when they talk about her to Booker and Nile, she could make you want to follow her everywhere. And this battle, it was theirs. With her they are finally complete and they were going to win, Quynh could feel it in every part of her body.

“Cover Andy” She reminds everyone, before they got out of the lab. 

But the thing is you can’t exactly cover Andromache. 

Andromache is the one who always covers everyone.

Before anyone can react, she is in front of them all, leading the fight. She fights in all her warrior glory, so strong and so flawless. Every move she makes is the one that she knows will give her what she wants. It’s magnificent, really, to watch her fight is always one of the best spectacles there are. 

No one knows exactly how she does it, but she is everywhere where she has to be at the right time.

Andy leads them, like she hasn’t been absent for five hundred years. 

Andy leads them like the eternal warrior she is. Although now, they will have to learn to assimilate that even what is eternal has an end.


	8. Chapter 8

Andromache takes the lead, she can’t help it, is just part of who she is. 

Suddenly, Nile is there for her. She takes a bullet to cover her, and she feels her heart stop at that. Andromache hates to see the others getting hurt to protect her, but she understands it this time. She is not immortal anymore, so it makes sense that the others act as her shields. 

They move along, walking through the building and defeating everyone who comes to stop them. 

One moment, they are being ambushed with gas and they have to move. They take refuge in a store room, until she gets tired of it. 

“Enough of this shit” Is what she says, to take out her frustration. 

She picks up an axe from the wall and goes out to confront the guards once again. 

When she defeats the last one, the team finally catches up with her and surrounds her.

“Where is doctor Kozak?” She asks the guard, who’s laying on the floor bleeding.

“In the penthouse” The guard answers her bitterly. 

She looks at the others to see who has a gun, and makes a sign so they can give it to her. But before that can happen, Quynh does it for her. She shots the guard, killing him instantly.

“We can take the risk of leaving anyone alive this time” Quynh tells her, as she looks at her.

“I know” She agrees.

“So, what do you think? How do you want us to enter the penthouse?” Joe asks her. 

She takes a moment to watch all of them and she feels how they are putting the trust on her. It makes her a little emotional, because it makes her feel like some things never change. She has always been the leader and it seems that five hundred years apart and two new immortal members won't take that away from her. 

“We need something surprising, that gives us advantage to handle the scene from different angles” She expresses her opinion.

“Oslo 67’?” Joe asks Quynh.

“More like Sao Paulo 34’” Quynh answers him.

“What happened in Sao Paulo 1934?” Nile asks them, with curiosity. 

“1834” Quynh corrects Nile. “You should take the easiest entry” She says, directing her attention to Andromache.

“I know” She confirms. She was starting to feel tired about the effort she was making in fighting in her state, so she won’t complain about it. 

“Nile, you’re with her, go for the principal door. Wait for our signal” Quynh requests Nile.

“What signal?” Nile asks Quynh.

“Andromache will know” Quynh simply says.

Andy moves with Nile, until they are outside the principal entry to the penthouse. They wait in the hallway, taking cover against a wall.

“Is the signal gonna be like an explosion or something like that?” Nile asks her.

“Go big or go home” She explains their method. 

“So, they learned that from you huh” Nile says, with humor present in her voice.

“I guess” She says, feeling warm at the fact that they kept doing some things in the way she liked doing them.

Suddenly she feels an intense pain in her side that makes her growl. Nile is there for her then, she takes scotch tape from her pocket and puts more of it in her wound.

“I’ll make the entry, you stay behind me, I’ll keep you safe” Nile says with determination.

“I go first” She tells her, not accepting her offer. “I always go first” She states.

“Andy, you are mortal now and you have been gone for hundred of years…” Nile protests.

“It doesn’t matter” She interrupts her. “If it’s my time, it’s my time” She says.

Andromache sees the moment Nile realises she is not going to win this conversation. The young woman lets out a deep breath and just ducks next to her, waiting for their signal. She feels grateful that even if they don’t know each other, Nile is respecting her. 

“I’ll tell you what, if I don’t make it out of here, then next time you can go first” She tells her, as a promise.

It should be a way to relieve both of them, but it seems it only serves to make Nile more emotional. Andromache sees her contain her tears and she wishes she could hug her, but this is not the time for it. Not only because they don’t know each other that well yet, but because they are about to go into another battle again and they need to be focused on that.

“You know I can see why the others used to talk about you like you were some kind of warrior goddess, is because you are really stubborn” Nile says, trying to joke.

It actually works, because she finds herself laughing. And when Nile joins her it feels right. Andromache looks at the young woman and hopes she can see all her gratefulness and appreciation in her eyes, because she doesn’t have words to express it at this moment.

The explosions come and that makes her go back to action. They enter the penthouse and they fight together, ending all the guards that come their way. 

Once they are all dead, Andromache feels her energy drains and needs to hold on to a wall to keep herself from falling. 

“Kozak is going down, she's getting away!” Nicky says, getting their attention on alert. 

“Go, I’ll stay with Andy” Nile assures them.

They are all moving before anyone can think of other options. Quynh gives her a little kiss on her lips as she passes her and then she is running behind their brothers. 

Andromace moves to one of the picture windows so she can see the moment doctor Kozak is out of the building and makes sure the other catches her so she can’t run away. Nile comes with her and stays by her side. 

These moments, taking a pause, make her feelings catch up with her. She feels the gravity of the situation falls on her. It’s exhausting and painful. But they are going to be safe, they have to. 

“Are you okay?” Nile asks her, looking at her with all the softness that exists in the universe.

“Yes, it just hurts” She answers her. And if she has to be honest with herself is not about her wound, is about everything. Her heart, her mind, her soul, her almost seven hundred years of life. “Actually everything hurts” She admits.

“Wait until tomorrow” Nile teases her. 

And it works again, because she laughs. Nile has a light on her that it’s refreshing, that makes her tired self relax. She looks at the young woman to consider her, and remembers the dreams she has about her before they met in person. Andromache could see it in the dreams, how brave, loyal and kind Nile is. And now, she is proving it to her. She is good to the team, she is good to all of them. 

“I think you showed up when the team most needed you, so we could all remember” She tells her, remembering the wall Copley had shown her and the stories he and Booker had told her about the new immortal.

“Remember?” Nile asks, confused.

“What it’s like to be immortal, how that makes us remarkable, unbreakable” She answers her. “You reminded us that there are good people worth fighting for” She ads, appreciating the other. 

They share a smile and a look of understandment. She likes Nile, how she is part of their family. She wants to be here for her and teach her all she knows, to introduce her to the craziness of their immortality life. 

“I know how I want to spend the time I have left” She confesses.

“You’re going to spend it with us Andy” Nile tells her with confidence. 

“You selfish bitch” Doctor Kozak interrupts them. “All the lives you could save” She says bitterly.

The doctor is pointing at them with a gun, and that makes Andromache change to her fight mode in an instant. She feels her face get all rigid, good. She would never let anyone intimidate her, the threats don’t work with her. If they want to be lethal with them that is fine, she can be even more. 

The doctor has her axe too and she is not sure how she has taken it under her power. She has lost it in some part of all the fighting, but she hasn't bothered in looking for it. But now that she sees it in the hands of that cruel woman, she wants to take it back and maybe kill her with it for torturing and experimenting with her family. 

“Hey Nile” She calls for the other woman. “You think she knows how to speak russian?” She asks.

She remembered the dream she had about Nile and Quynh on a plane. She hopes the other can understand her and take it as a signal. Nile looks at her and she feels herself smiling inside as she sees the understatement in her eyes.

Nile points at her with her gun and shoots. That makes doctor Kozak shoot Nile. Andy takes advantage of the distraction and gets her axe back, and nails it right in the middle of the doctor’s chest. 

Kozak is in shock, but still uses her gun to point at her and shoot once again. Nile stands up ahead of her and takes the bullet, then grabs the doctor and jumps with her through the picture window.

She appreciates the jump for a second. It’s really amazing and badass. Nile knew her very little at this point, but still was ready to take a bullet for her and jump from the top of a building. Yes, Nile is definitely one of them and that makes her smile.

“Play death motherfucker” She says, as she looks at the scene with relief.

She takes the elevator and once she is in the street with her family, Nile gives her axe back and that makes her a little emotional. She appreciates the new one for a second and caresses her cheek with affection. Then she leads them to the car, so they can go out of there before the police arrives at the scene.


	9. Chapter 9

Andromache is driving them out of London, following Joe’s directions to a safehouse they have in a nearby city. Quynh takes a moment to observe her, she has never seen her drive before. It looks good on her, she does it like it is easy, like she has always been doing it. She always loved the confidence she has to do things. 

They are out of doctor Kozak’s lab and it feels good. She is glad they leave that place behind, that they are free, that they won’t have to go through another experiment. 

Suddenly, something brings her attention back to the moment. Andromache has made a hurtful noise. She looks at her and sees her side is still bleeding. Right, she is mortal now. Why is she driving when she is the only one still hurting from an injury? They need to take care of her.

“Andromache” She calls her by her name to get her whole attention. “We need to stop, we need to take care of your wound and you need to let other of us drive” She says calmly. 

“We are not that far” Andy tries to protest.

“We are three hours from the safehouse” Joe contradicts her. 

“It’s not necessary” Andy dismisses their worries.

“It is” She argues. “Please” She adds softly. 

So Andy stops at the next service station. Joe and Nile go to the shop to buy first aid materials, Booker goes to load nafta to the car, and Nicky goes to get some food so they can have dinner once they are at the safehouse. 

“How do you feel?” She questions her. “Be honest” She asks, in a pleading way. 

“I’m fine, it just hurts” Andy answers her honestly.

“Your adrenaline must be running out” She tries to reason. “So, how did you find us?” She requests to know. 

“I was ready to see all of you again. I was checking some of the safehouses I could remember, when I found Copley” She explains. 

“He works for us” She says.

“I know” Andy confirms. 

“Thanks to him we could prove that what we do actually works, we do good” She feels the need to tell her, she wants her to know she had been right in the purpose she gave them. 

“We do” Andy says and laughs at it. “It’s crazy, but it feels nice to finally know. Right?” She says, looking at her with a strange intensity.

“It is” She agrees, feeling hopeful about their porpuse once again. 

Joe and Nile are back with them. They take care of Andy’s side. Nile cleans the wound and Joe does the stitches. Booker offers to be the one who drives. Quynh takes Andy to the copilot seat and makes her sit with her. The other three accommodate in the back. 

Quynh surrounds Andy with her arms and doesn’t let go. Andy falls asleep at some point of the journey and she enjoys having her like this, in peace, safe in her arms. 

When they finally get to the safehouse, Copley is waiting for them.

“You saved them” Copley says, looking proudly at Andy.

“She did” Joe confirms, just as proudly. 

“What happened?” Copley asks, as he realises Andromache’s is walking in a strange way, like something is hurting her.

“She is hurt from a gunshot” Booker answers. 

“What? How?” Copley asks, very confused.

“Nothing that lives, lives forever” Andy states. 

“Immortality ends?” Copley asks and the look everyone gives him is enough for him to know the answer. “Then why didn't you let me go with you?” He questions Andy.

“It wasn’t your fight” Andy answers him.

“Going back to the immortality topic, I thought immortality meant we couldn’t die” Nile says, bringing their attention to her. 

“We can’t, mostly. But one of us did, a long time ago” Andy starts explaining Nile.

“Lykon. He was a warrior, just like us” Quynh says, with pain in her voice as she remembers the loss of her brother.

“One day our wounds stop healing, and we don’t know when, how or why” Andy adds.

“It’s a lot to process” Nicky tells Nile, in a kind way.

“Yeah...” Nile agrees.

“I think we should clean ourselves and relax” Nicky suggests.

They let Andy shower first, because now that she is mortal she is the one still hurting. Then they take turns. Once they are all clean they have dinner.

“What are we going to do now?” Nile asks, while they eat. 

“What do you mean?” Quynh requests to know, confused.

“Well, Booker is with us and Andy is mortal” Nile answers, a little unsure on how to phrase what she wants to know. 

“We already decided that one hundred years of exile are not necessary” Nicky reminds them.

“But I won’t be joining the missions until you all feel comfortable, until you feel you can trust me again” Booker assures them, giving them the power over that. 

“So, we are going to keep doing missions?” Nile asks. 

“Why wouldn't we?” Joe asks.

“Andy…” Nile starts.

“My mortality doesn’t change anything” Andy interrupts her. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ve been fighting my whole long life, I won't stop now. Fight for what we believe is right is what we do, and I’m gonna keep doing it” She expresses her point of view, although it sounds like she has already decided it and no one would change her mind. 

“Are you sure?” Nile asks, still uncertain.

Quynh smiles at that. Oh how she wishes she could stop Andromache from fighting, but she knows she can’t do it. No one can stop that woman. She is a force to be reckoned with. And even if she could stop her, she wouldn’t, because that is her essence. Andromache is a fighter and she loves her as who she is. 

“Well, maybe we can take some time for vacations too” Andy suggests, and suddenly they are all laughing at that. 

When they finish dinner and all the plates are clean, they go to bed. The day has left them really exhausted. 

Quynh lays in bed, with Andy in her arms. She finds herself unable to sleep no matter how tired she is. She can’t stop thinking about everything that happened since Nile became an immortal, Booker’s betrayal, Andy’s return and mortality. Is a lot.

“If you keep thinking that loud you are going to wake them all up” Andy tells her, getting her attention back to the present.

“I thought you were sleeping” She says, surprised that the other is awake.

“I was” Andy nods.

“I’m sorry” She apologizes, it was not her intention to wake her. 

“Don’t be” Andy assures her. “Talk to me” She asks. 

“I’m scared” She says softly, hanging to the other with strength. “I don’t want to lose you” She admits.

“You are not going to lose me” Andy tries to reassure her.

“You can’t promise that, not anymore” She says, looking at her wound like it’s the worst menace ever.

“Just because I’m not healing anymore doesn’t mean i’m dying, I still have time” Andy reminds her, sounding a little defeated. Like she was expecting this, but doesn’t know how to deal with it. 

“I know” She nods.

“And death doesn’t mean entirely gone, I’ll still be with you in your heart, your thoughts and memories” Andy says, as she thinks in Lykon. 

Quynh knows she is saying that because of Lykon. It still hurts to think about him, about how abrupt and unexpected was his departure. At least this time they know and they have time to enjoy being together. 

“Do you think you are going to meet Lykon again?” She asks, a little afraid about the thought. 

“I don’t know, but I like to think that yes” Andy answers honestly.

“Will you wait for me wherever you go?” She requests to know, her voice breaking a little.

Andy turns them in the bed, so she is the one who can hold her, trapping her this time between her arms. She caresses her hair and kisses her shoulders sweetly, and Quynh finds herself relaxing completely. 

“Always” Andy assures her and kisses her nose.

“Just you and me” She says, remembering their oath.

“Until the end” Andy promises her.

Quynh kisses her then, showing her all the love she feels for her and feeling all that love back, being reciprocal. 

They are together. 

They love each other. Even after three thousand years together and one six hundred years apart, they still love each other. Every time more than ever.

And that is what matters. 

They still have time.

THE END.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \+ BONUS
> 
> They are at Copley’s office working on completing the information on his wall about their work.
> 
> “The most ancient information I could find about you takes us to Troy, I don’t know if it’s true or just a myth but…” Copley says to Andromache.
> 
> “Yes, I was Hector’s wife” Andy confirms. 
> 
> Quynh smiles at that, she already knew that story. She loves seeing all the others getting shocked about the news, it’s really entertaining. 
> 
> “What about the myth of ‘Andromache, the amazon warrior’?” Copley continues his questioning.
> 
> “Yes, I trained them, I teached the Amazons how to be warriors. And I was the one who defeated Heracles, but he wasn’t a demigod, he was just a mortal human” Andy answers simply, like it is not a big deal.
> 
> “And you just say it like that?” Nile asks, impressed. 
> 
> “I met Jesus too” Andy says, pointing at the cross on Nile’s neck.
> 
> “What?!” Nicky and Nile react at the same time. 
> 
> Nicky almost falls off his chair, Joe has to steady him so he won’t fall, and Quynh finds herself laughing at that. Yes, she knew that story too. On that one she was already with Andromache. They met the revolutionary man together. He was nice, but he didn’t come back to life, not like them.
> 
> “Do you know what year you were born?” Copley asks Andy, as he tries to make a timeline.
> 
> “No, we didn’t use to count time like people do now” Andy answers him. 
> 
> “What about your age? Any idea?” Copley keeps asking.
> 
> “Well, maybe somewhere between six and seven thousand years, probably near seven” Andy replies thoughtfully, like she’s trying to make the count in her mind.
> 
> “Did you know dinosaurs too?” Joe jokes and they all laugh at his humor.
> 
> “No, but words didn’t exist when I was borned, that I can remember” Andy says with confidence.
> 
> “What do you mean?” Book asks, feeling himself getting curious again about all the mysteries this woman has. 
> 
> “When the first language was invented I have already died a lot of times” Andy answers, with a satisfying smile.
> 
> Nile makes another noise of impression and they all laugh again. 
> 
> Quynh looks at her wife with admiration and smiles at her. This is the first time Andy gets to tell her whole story to more people than just her. She feels happy that she is finally ready to share all of herself to the world. They are all lucky to have her.
> 
> “Hey, be careful” Booker says to Andy.
> 
> Andy has been trying to pin some photos to the wall and she has hurt her finger in the way. Quynh joins her hand with Andy’s, ready to stop the little blood it may come out of her finger. Andy looks at her with an amused smile, giving her the power to do whatever she wants.
> 
> Quynh takes the pin out of her finger and then stops the blood with her fingers. But, when she takes them out, the injury heals just in front of her eyes. 
> 
> “What the hell?” She asks in shock.
> 
> “Well, it seems like we still have more time after all” Andy answers, as she examines her healed finger.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language so be patient with me please.
> 
> If you want to talk more about andomaquynh and tumblr is your thing you can reach for me here: https://cryhardanddanceharder.tumblr.com/


End file.
